County Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

you want to talk about me oh that's good yeah okay um good afternoon it's tuesday september 8 2026 it's 331. please rise for the pledge of allegiance

Mr. Moore.

Here.

Mr. Gallagher. Here. Mr. Riddell.

Here.

We have a quorum. Under resolutions number one, investments.

So moved.

Second. Discussion. Mr. Moore. Aye. Mr. Gallagher. Aye. Mr. Riddell. Aye. Number two, appropriations. So moved. Second. Discussion.

Yes. Casey, would you like to explain line item two for us? For those that are watching, I'm sure that number will grab some attention.

certainly so that is that is an appropriation for the Board of DD and I don't have a I don't have the the details of the the specifics the appropriation but this is these are them appropriating funds above and beyond what their original 2026 So it could have to do with, and again, I'm purely speculating here, but it could have to do with a new program that got implemented or perhaps a new grant that they had received. So I don't have the specifics, but that's, from a grand scale, that's essentially what's happening here. The Board of DD is appropriating that additional $1.7 million above and beyond the original 2026 budget.

Now, would it be, for those that are watching, that's not general fund money?

That's correct, yeah. None of the four lines listed there under appropriations are general fund or general fund adjacent. None of these affect the general fund.

So those would be appropriations of their particular levy funds.

Special revenue funds, correct.

Which reside under the treasurer's domain. So these are basically instructions for the treasurer to move the money for them. Correct. Thank you.

Anything further? Commissioner Moore. Aye. Commissioner Gallagher. Aye. Commissioner Riddell. Aye. Number three, transfers.

So moved.

Second.

Discussion.

Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Gallagher? Aye. Mr. Riddell? Aye.

Number four, advances, repayments, surrender. Number five, requisitions.

So moved. Second.

Discussion. Mr. Moore?

Aye.

Mr. Gallagher?

Aye.

Mr. Riddell? Aye. Number six, travel.

So moved.

Second. Discussion. Mr. Moore?

Aye.

Mr. Riddell? Aye. Mr. Gallagher? Aye. Number seven, bills.

Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Commissioner Moore?

Aye.

Commissioner Gallagher?

Aye.

Commissioner Riedel? Aye. Old business?

Yeah, we're going to talk about some old business right now. What you just saw was how things used to be done here for decades. Now I'm going to ask Victor to come back and look at what happened in 2023 when Jeff took office and how transparent this board has been. Victor, can you look at number one, please? Investments. That is what we voted on. I think people got kind of like comfortable with the way how major of a change that we did. Number two was the appropriations. We had one page. This is a page I think, Jeff, you were talking about with Casey just now. yes okay i mean now the public can see it and what what jeff and casey were talking about was these are we're appropriating funds out of their levy account i believe right and that's what the um the appropriations we only have one page of that take a look at page three this was our transfers um you can see you know if you've been watching our meetings for the last three years You probably thought, no big deal. This is how it's been done. It hasn't. The first time it was done in January 2023. Before that, what you saw earlier is how it was always done for decades. We had no advancements. Requisitions. We only had one page today. And so what we would do, what you've seen for the last three years, is how we would vote. And you see each one of these accounts. Well, the account like number 794 fund means... That's our general fund. So when you see 1,000 on there, that's general fund. The other accounts are other special accounts that they may have, other elected officials may have, or other departments may have. In regards to travel, are we on travel? Yep. We have one page of travel, so we'll leave that up there so people can see where some of the expenses are. And number five, we had five pages of bills. Again, this is the kind of stuff that was never being showed to the public. Number two, please. Page three. Page four. And page five. Thank you. And what would happen is, and this was even when I was here 25 years ago, in order for me to expose an expense that I didn't approve, I would vote yes, let's say, on the appropriations. Take me back to page two. I just want to show the history of page two of the appropriations. It's the second page that you did. Keep going. I just want to show how things were in the past. Come back. Go back. One more.

Right there. No, one more.

Next one. I'm sorry. I meant to say. Yes. Like, I might object to, let's say, number four, and I would state my reasons, but the public wouldn't know. You can cut out now. You can come back to us. So the public wouldn't know what I was talking about at that time, and then what would happen is the media would come up. We actually used to have radio and television back in the day because this thing called the Internet was kind of too new. And so then the media would come up and ask for the pages, and then they would interview us on why we agreed or didn't agree. um the way that um we started doing our meetings on youtube it used to be on cable but we're on youtube and so by putting it out there that's some a lot of compliments we got in 23 from other subdivisions throughout the county because they could sit and see how your money was being spent we're totally transparent and you may wonder you know the main thing is this there's 16 county elected officials We're the only ones. There's three of us here. We have to vote yes or no on things. And so therefore, everything we do has to be in the public arena, has to be transparent. We have to show everybody how your money is being spent. With the budget crunch that we're living in right now, we're actually going to be visiting how other elected officials on whether or not they're on track or if they're not on track. and hopefully instead of waiting till December or mid-November, we're gonna start making people a little bit more aware of other officials and how they're spending your taxpayer money. But I thought today, since it's such a short agenda, at least we'd like to do one of those memory lane things and show everybody what all the public quickly forgets and how things used to be done here. So the word transparency is used in campaigns, we're not transparent, well, i was here long ago when i was in my 30s and i tell you right now it wasn't transparent what i just went through is how it used to be done and when i came back it still stayed that way until 2023 so the fact that all the money that you see is being exposed There was some lawsuits, you'll see lawsuits on here. I can tell you right now regarding the one that was in October of 23. We looked online in YouTube and the views were amazing because that was a settlement in regards to the prosecutor and one of his employees. and within an hour or two it was all over the media and all over the everybody was calling and that's because we're transparent and we put it out there for everybody to see if not depending on if it's a busy news week or not the media would either ask for that list or they'll just skip over it move on and that's how things used to be done so do i take offense no i don't take offense when somebody says we're not transparent because that's politics Those are talking points. But I thought it'd be nice for history to show everybody how things used to be done for decades here. And that changed in 23. That's my little speech for old business. So thank you for participating in my little, except you start talking. I thought, no, man, that was, but anyway, just to let you guys know under old business, that's how it used to be. And I wanted to let everybody know that's how we're doing it today. So.

Do you have some old business?

Jeff, did you have any?

No. Okay. During last meeting, it was brought to the attention of the board that there was some concern about a loan made to Creekwood Development for the housing development. I think that's what Karen's here for.

What's that? That's what Karen's here for, too.

Oh, okay. It's fine. Perfect. So about a year ago, the county applied for a residential economic development district grant. is to facilitate housing and support major new development or employment centers. So the Ford plant was part of that program. After the first application was not funded, we applied for a second round and included a loan to facilitate a quicker acquisition of a parcel that was already under agreement to be acquired by Creekwood Development Company, LLC, an allowable use for the grant funds. This was allowable. um and uh and to facilitate development of housing units sooner and i'll go over this why it was done this way the parcel happened to be owned by a person that was uh that was it was holding up a restoration of fortune ditch So by us accelerating it, it put the property into the appropriate hands. The district at the time had more than enough cash on hand to make a short-term loan that would facilitate the project and prevent further potential flood damages to residents along the ditch and possible litigation incurred by the people being flooded out by the ditch and hindering other projects going forward. If we would have held off on this loan until the end of this month or in the fall here, we would have missed all of next year. It would have put us into 2028 to get this project going. Housing is a shortage in Lorain County. And furthermore, when the application said that it had a due date of right around September 1, one of the things is how the system works here, that there were signatures required and there's some bureaucracy that took place, delayed it by 30 days. So by the end of this month, we should be receiving those funds back. But we also had, if we wouldn't have approved this, and let's say we approved it in March, we have an issue with um the indiana bat um so when you're tearing down acreage of land you have those environmental issues again it would be pushing into 2028. so that's why we made that decision and uh it was to facilitate it speed up the process and you know we will be collecting our money back so the repayment on uh the date effectively would be september 30th not July 31st or July 30th, and it's because of the time. It was a timing issue. Yeah, the timing issue itself, and it took us longer to process it. So that's why we did that long. Okay.

May I? Now that Commissioner Gallagher has laid out the background of it, I'd like to address the comment that was made in public comment, and that is that somehow this whole event was a favor granted to a developer who happened to be a campaign contributor. First of all, I was not involved in any of the negotiations for this. It was brought to us to vote. It was already put together. Secondly, this is a case where we did not do a favor for the developer. The developer did a favor to the county. It was attractive land. He already had a purchase option, already had an agreement on. He accelerated his payment in order to remove one litigation and stop a second litigation because unfortunately when we do ditch hearings, you could have 17, 18, 1200 people on a ditch and one person can take the ditch to court and stop us from cleaning the ditch this individual had been stopping us from cleaning the fortune ditch and was trying to collect money from the county for an easement in court that he likely would have lost But he was continuing to hold up damage to the other property owners who had indicated that they wanted to enjoin the county in litigation because they viewed us as not doing our job to remove this obstacle and they were continuing to suffer damages. When I say he did a favor, yes, we gave him six months of interest-free, but that's because the Fortune Ditch project, I believe, is being, and I think Mr. Romancic will address this shortly, but that job was engineered this summer and is out to bid. The bids are due this month, and the money will be back in time to pay that successful contractor for the work on Fortune Ditch. However, the developer still does not plan to develop that property for another 12 to 18 months, and so they will be borrowing money this month to pay us back, and they will incur that 12 to 18 months worth of interest at trying to be a good corporate citizen and helping us so that we can get into the ditch because as commissioner gallagher said unfortunately if we don't get these projects started in the fall and winter when the ground is frozen and we can get in without doing a lot of damage to property and take care of the obstructions and start cleaning the ditch We run into the Indiana bat in the spring, and then we run into the spawning season if there happens to be small fish and other critters, if you will, in the ditch. So at the end of the day, we would lose a whole season while we waited to get through the Indiana bat season and get through the wildlife issues in the water. So I just want to correct the record because we do have good corporate citizens and the developers respect the work being done by Lorain County and our management team. And they got involved in a situation that was doing us a favor. I'm not so much concerned about mine because the individual that made the accusation is obviously campaigning for somebody else in the future. But I do want to make sure that people understand this was not a bad act by our management staff and it was not an act Towards the developer it was an act where he was being a good corporate citizen and keeping us from tying up the land in Litigation and so forth that would have prohibited the progress on the property So Don you're here today. Thank you. And would you address the situation anything that I may have left out?

Thank You commissioners between Commissioner Gallagher and yourself. You've covered most of it. A couple of things I think would be important to kind of flesh out is before the resolution went to the board, we had, as was said, we had applied for a grant twice to accelerate housing. And in the second round, we had identified land acquisition or accumulation. as an eligible use and so within our grant program we developed we had conversations with the developer who we knew already had acquired a purchase option and so and they were asking when fortune ditch would get done So we had some conversations, they were open to a loan and then it was, okay, let's begin to take a look at how we can do this so that we can accelerate the development of housing. We can improve a ditch that would be the primary outlet for at least a portion of a housing subdivision that would be going in and to be able to do everything that was necessary for it. So while we were writing it into the grant, I had a conversation then, and they were open to the loan, I had a conversation with the county prosecutor's office and asked whether or not we would be able to have Stormwater be able to make this loan, reviewing what 61-17 had talked about as far as eligible uses and one of them being to be able to gain interest in land. So working with the county prosecutor's office, we developed loan agreements, mortgages, promissory notes, easement language that Catherine Perales from the prosecutor's staff and myself worked on, and I'm sure Lee had a hand in it, but Kathy was the main point of contact. and we were able to put something together that then went back and forth between the developer's attorney and the prosecutor's office. And these stormwater funds, the other thing I think that is important is that it can only be used for stormwater purposes. So we can't use this to do a water line project, we can't do it to build new housing, we can't do it to pay community development staff. It has to go towards storm water purposes. A special revenue fund that has its own set of rules and how it can be used. So those dollars are segregated from the general fund and from all the other funds. And these were some of the things that we had worked on before we could bring those agreements even to the board. And then when the board did approve the resolution, we were still going back and forth on some of the finer points of the agreements. One of the biggest being getting that easement right so that the developer was comfortable and would be able to move forward with their development. Stormwater District was getting what it needed so that it could then properly maintain the ditch without harming the development that was being proposed. And so that was another layer I think of how all of this was happening and things going on behind the scenes. And also that this money is not available for any use. That it is extremely limited in how it can be used. But I guess with that, is there any other questions that may have gone unanswered? because I think we've covered most of it.

I would like to add the comment too that this ditch was already on the radar and was already set to be taken care of by the commissioners in stormwater because even under agricultural and low density housing use, the ditch had flooding issues. It needed maintenance. So this was not a project created for the developer But many times we hear from residents that when they experience flooding and stuff that recent developments in their neighborhood have contributed to flooding. And this was a case where the neighborhood was already flooding and a year or two from now when the houses would come on board, if this ditch was still in litigation and it was still in court, those additional houses which were approved by the township, they weren't approved by the commissioners, they were approved by the township they would merely add to that already flooding situation. So this is a case where not only the developer and not only the county for this ditch project, but also all the neighboring property owners that were already experiencing flooding issues, everybody won in this project.

Yeah, this project was approved several years before we've been in litigation for or we were in litigation for far too long going through the court of the going through common pleas court of appeals and then back to common pleas. So there's been a lot of time and investment here. The other thing to note is that this ditch not only with the Creekwood golf course or Creekwood development, Bob Schmidt homes was the original petitioner out of North Ridgeville and there was additional homes that were being developed. So, yeah, this has been a long time standing issue. This is a project that has a great deal of benefit to all of the existing homes and similar to other projects such as Gerber that we're finalizing, also provides for future development and also is preserving green spaces. When we finish up this ditch, there will be an offset that is much more easily enforced because the county will have a path to maintain the existing ditch as well. So we will in fact enforce a 25 foot riparian setback along Fortune Ditch to prevent obstructions from going in as well. So be it residential, agricultural, industrial, commercial. So there's a lot that's been going on with this ditch and a great need. And then there's another tributary Dixon ditch that is also a part of this project that will move forward where we've had several flood complaints from North Ridgeville residents as well. And North Ridgeville will be contributing funds towards this project as well.

Yeah, just to finalize too, this is a proven developer in our county, well established, and it is a win for everybody around to get this project moving, especially because of the housing crisis and all that. And as far as the campaign contribution point, I do believe I was the first person to bring this up, just so you know.

So when you say a long time, Define long time. This project. 10 years?

A little in excess of 10 years, but it really accelerated in 2021. This was one of the, when ARPA came with the 6.5 million, this was like project number one.

Okay. I'll clarify though. I'll clarify. Since I've been in office, I was the one who triggered when we were doing this whole transaction.

now yeah that that's what i triggered i helped trigger oh well you should have been here when we did the dartboard i can imagine he had like a what a 10 or 15 year plan i said you know what five yeah it took us 10 or 15 to five years so yeah yeah thank you for triggering it mr president the last comment i would make is for those that that

At the last meeting who also thought that money shouldn't be used for this. It should be used for something else. And you'll note that this is not general fund money. So, to to compare this to a project that is general fund money. As as. Just as Don just said, this money can't be used for all those other things. It is earmarked and restricted for promoting housing. So trying to put more money into a labor contract or into an additional staff for another elected or those kinds of things, that's just not possible to do. Those funds are restricted. And for those that want to keep an eye on the general fund, as I hope they do, Please note that the clerk of the commissioners does a really good job on every resolution, including the last one. If you go back and look at the resolution that made that loan, it will tell you where the money comes from. And then you can avoid stating something that isn't true simply because the homework wasn't completed. We good?

We're good. There's nothing else under old?

That's under old business, so, okay.

Public comment on agenda items? No. Board business, eight, approve and waive the reading of the county commissioner's meeting minutes of August 25th through 28th.

So moved.

Second. Discussion? Mr. Moore?

Aye.

Mr. Gallagher?

Aye. Mr. Riddell? Aye.

Nine, approve an interim cooperation agreement with the Village of South Amherst to facilitate their ability to utilize the multi-agency radio communication system. County will provide the Village of South Amherst with a loan in the amount of $78,736.40 to purchase radios and equipment, and loan is to be repaid to the county within two years' receipt of the funding and shall be interest-free, which will be paid from the commissioner's other expenses account.

So moved.

Second. Discussion? Mr. Riddell?

Aye.

Mr. Gallagher?

Aye. Mr. Moore? Okay, aye.

It's an underlying tone there.

Number 10, approve and enter in a second amendment to a lease agreeing with American National Red Cross for office space located at 322 North Gateway Boulevard, Elyria. Amendment is to extend the term of the lease for two years expiring April 30th, 2028. Total annual rent for May 1st, 26th through April 30th, 27 is $12,888. And May 1st, 27th through April 30th, 2028 is $13,212. Move to approve. Second. Discussion? Karen? Go ahead. You want to talk about this deal?

Well, this has actually been a pretty good partnership, and I do have to give kudos to Commissioner Riddell because I believe that you brought this tenant to our attention when you first came into office. And Dan Gross was kind enough, good enough to negotiate a lease agreement with the Red Cross. It has worked out wonderfully. There seems to be some synergy between our EMA department and the Red Cross, especially when there's any kind of an emergency that comes up. We had space, extra space available. We did find that the Red Cross used a lot of the parking lot, which we didn't take into consideration when we did our original lease. So since that time, we have added some costs associated with their trailers and such, taking up some space in the parking lot. But again, it's been a great relationship, and we are glad that we're able to extend it for another two years.

I was glad to bring that partnership to the county because everybody talks about public-private partnership and this is a case where in every natural disaster the government has some obligations and the non-profits like and private sector like the Red Cross they have obligations and missions and they all involve the same crisis and it makes a lot of sense that they be able to physically work together and plan and strategize how they're gonna handle that disaster. When people look at the rent, the rent is a little on the low side compared to what you would do if you were in the commercial business to make money. But in this case, the intangible benefits of this lease far outweigh the sacrifice that we made on the dollars and cents.

Absolutely.

Anything further? Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Gallagher? Aye. Mr. Riddell?

Aye.

Another Sheriff 11 receiving file, the annual report submitted by the Lorain County Sheriff's Office. Of all fines and costs collected by the Sheriff's Office for the year next preceding August 26th, 2026, was $172,155.34 in accordance with the Ohio Race Code 311.16. So moved. Second. Discussion? Mr. Moore?

Aye.

Mr. Rennell? Aye. Mr. Gallagher? Aye. Ms. Perkins?

Just wanted to remind everybody that our first employee wellness fair is this Thursday, September 10th, here at the administration building in rooms A and B. between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., so I encourage any employees that would have any questions with regards to the changes in the health care plan for 2027 to try to come to that wellness fair. If they're not able to come on Thursday, we do have a second fair scheduled for Tuesday, September 15th, between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Murray Ridge Gym on Murray Ridge Road. And that concludes my report.

And this is for the, because we're changing our health care program. This is to educate or is it to?

Yeah. Well, there's several vendors there. Of course, Medical Mutual will be there. True Scripts will be there. We will have a representative from Northwest Bank to answer any questions with regards to the HSA that we're going to be offering. We'll have some, like, healthy snacks and such and try to, I had to think about that, and try to be able to encourage employees to do more healthy living and be making better choices for themselves and their family.

Wasn't there one today?

No, the one today I think was for the outside entities.

Yeah, today's was the, there are other entities, townships especially, because of their low head count, don't get a lot of buying power when they go to buy hospitalization and they've been buying through the county for quite a while so today's meeting was to make sure that they understood the changes and and what was going to happen and so forth but it's it's a good partnership between you know the county and the townships that extends our buying power to them

So that's, I'm sorry, Commissioner Gallagher, did you have a question?

No.

No question? You look like you have a question. OK, then.

Well, other than I put some apples in the lunchroom. Yes, you did.

Encourage healthy living. I was hoping those were really green apples, because I love the sour ones.

There we go. That was my only lunch. Just saying. That was my lunch.

I have nothing. Board correspondence.

Move to waive the reading for the board correspondence.

Discussion mr. Moore. All right, mr. No, all right. Mr. Gallagher.

Hi Karen Johnson Karen Johnson Carlisle Township I got something prepared but you guys changed it a little bit Townships don't like to accelerate development so while your deal may have looked rosy for everybody it wasn't so rosy for eaton township and in fact even as recent as last week the developers were screaming at the trustees they do not have a final plan for that extra piece of property the p the actual development was done and set a year ago and then this plan that just came along in like april changed the whole development and added additional homes that they're questioning. They don't even know that the schools are going to be able to handle it over in Columbia. They're splitting the development in half, so some can go to Midview and some can go to Columbia. So it really isn't as rosy as you're saying. And I kind of wonder if that money wouldn't have come along, would they have expanded that development? Because it says here, 700 homes. They haven't even approved 700 homes, and they're not going to approve 700 homes. So they're saying right now there's not enough green space, there's too many houses together. So it's really, I'm concerned about that, cuz I'm concerned that the county facilitated developing that wouldn't have happened otherwise. And I understand that the ditch needed to be cleaned, but is this the way to do it? And shouldn't Eaton Township have been included in those discussions? Why should this have been done behind their back? The other thing that was pointed out to me in talking to Eaton Township is that although the developers are getting assistance, the townships are overdue for receiving their tax money. They usually receive it mid-August. They still haven't received it. And most of the townships don't have money in the bank. They're spending money that they currently don't have. So they wanted you to know that. One other thing, I wanted to, I'm going to give this to you, but I just want to say something about it. it it bugs me a bit when you don't follow robert's rules and one of the things that bugs me and it might sound odd but you don't end the meetings properly and i'd really appreciate it if the way to end a meeting is you either do a motion to end it or you can say is there any other business before the board give a few seconds and then say adjourned So I want to put that out there. And also, last time you said that you weren't going to let people talk if they didn't fill in your form all the way. And that is actually questionable as far as sunshine laws and whatnot. So I put something together that I just want to hand out because I would just appreciate that Robert's rules be a little bit better respected in the.

Sure. Could you list your address, too? Because when you come up to speak, you're supposed to list your address because. My address is on the screen. yeah i know you have to list it though yeah it's not it's we got but oh i think sold us that's sunshine laws okay sunshine laws say that it respects anonymity so i just thought i'd let you know okay thank you thank you for your comments i guess the public comment portion is concluded okay it's their new business Yeah, we will. No other new business, I don't think. Nope, not going to.

OK. No new business? OK. County commissioners may recess in an executive session, consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of a public employee or official, along with any other matters specifically identified by motion in accordance with the Ohio Rights Code 121.2 , G 1 through 8 unless expressly stated otherwise during executive session matters discussed an executive session are designated by the county commissioners as Confidential because of the confidentiality of such matters is necessary for the proper conduct of government business Any disclosure outside of executive session is prohibited by why rice code one zero two point zero three B While an executive session the county commissioners may discuss and deliberate on the matters at issue But no votes made to take and until open session resumes. I

We will be going into executive session, so I'll make a motion to do so based on Teresa just said I Will second discussion. Yeah, we have a discussion defense will be out. We don't know how long this executive session will last I would do want to make a statement the Anniversary of 9-11 is Friday. Our meeting is at usually 9-30. All three of us will be attending events that morning, so we will not start the meeting until 10 a.m. this Friday. It will be in regards to the 25th anniversary of the attacks. So that's it for discussion.

Commissioner Moore? Aye. Commissioner Gallagher? Aye. Commissioner Renaud?

Aye.

There you go.

Commissioners have reconvened from executive session.

Thank you. And we are adjourned. Have a good day.

See you Friday.

You betcha.